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Research Programs

CIFAR fellows take on tough questions that span disciplines. The answers they require can only be reached by international, interdisciplinary teams working together over a sustained period of time. Our 12 programs tackle questions across four broad areas: improving human health, creating successful societies, using technology to make life better, and sustaining life on Earth.

Researchers with the program in Child & Brain Development want to know how adversity and enrichment in early childhood affect mental, physical and emotional health throughout a lifetime, and how the problems caused by early adversity can be abated or reversed.

CIFAR’s program in Molecular Architecture of Life is untangling the details of the complex molecular processes that underlie all living systems, with implications for everything from our understanding of evolution to our ability to treat disease.

The properties of materials have huge influence on our lives: the electrical conductivity of copper, or the magnetic nature of iron, underpin the functioning of modern technology like computers, satellites, our electrical grid and more.